Judge allows state to remove 200 from voter rolls

FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) — Florida can begin removing about 200 potentially ineligible voters from state rolls because they might not be U.S. citizens, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge William Zloch said Florida has a "compelling interest" to ensure that non-citizens do not cast ballots. Zloch rejected a challenge from several voting rights groups and the Obama administration. They contended the purge violated a federal law against removing voters within 90 days of an election.

Zloch, however, said the law "does not require the state to idle on the sidelines until a non-citizen violates the law before the state can act." Along similar lines, a federal judge ruled in June that the 90-day prohibition does not apply to people who are not U.S. citizens.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner said Florida has an obligation to ensure Florida's voter rolls are current and accurate, which means removing ineligible voters when they are identified.

The state's original purge list contained more than 2,600 names but was beset by inaccuracies. Last month, a revised list of 198 names of possible non-citizens was produced through use of a Homeland Security Department citizenship database. State officials asked elections supervisors to remove those names from the rolls but most said the process would run past the Election Day.

Voting registration is being closely watched because Florida is a key swing state in the presidential election.

One of the groups that tried to stop the purge said Zloch's ruling could prevent legitimate votes from being cast.

"Removing individuals this close to the election could jeopardize the right to vote for eligible citizens that ended up on the voter purge list due to faulty matching programs," said Ben Hovland, senior counsel at the Fair Elections Legal Network.

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Why is this a liberal vs conservative thing? If it's liberal to want our elections officials to use accurate data to purge voter rolls of non-citizens, well I guess I have to wear that one. Would you prefer more inaccurate lists be used?

Perhaps an inept administration might to be blame for attempting to use known bad data(lists with less than 7% accuracy) to waste thousands of dollars on a pandering partisan voter purge.

It's a liberal thing by your insults . Typical leftist.Easy to spot. Acorn had un-registered people registering and voting on the same day by the thousand. Black Panthers standing in front of polls with clubs.Your poster boy Holder would not or bring charges. you Nigel use the same worn out Democratic talking points and snide remarks.
Please do not address me back with a comment.
Florida has more problems with voting Why?
God Bless you and the USA.

The New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is not related to the Black Panthers. The New Black Panthers Party was founded in 1989 by Malik Zulu Shabazz. They are a fringe militant black supremacist organization and listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have also been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP.

In 2008, there was ONE incident where 2 members of the New Black Panthers Party standing in front of a polling place on election day. One of the two, Minister King Shabazz, had a billy club and was shouting “white demon” and "cracker" at passersby. The police removed Shabazz from the scene. Charges against Shabazz resulted in an injunction banning him from carrying a weapon in the area of a polling place in the future.

How this one incident, that took place in a primarily black voting precinct in Philadelphia, has been blown up into some nation-wide conspiracy to intimidate white voters is absurd.

Why would you assume the aleged 200 "questionables" would vote Democrat. In light of the current criminal case it seems likely they may be voting republican.

Either way, voting illegally is a crime, prosecute them Republican or Democrat.

However, can we use known good data to purge the rolls? They knew the data was inaccurate and contained legimate voters, even veterans and active military and used anyway.........

I can imagine the howls of indignation from the rationalizing proponents here if they recieved a letter that they had been arbitrarily and falsely removed from the voter rolls. OMG, "it's a liberal conspiracy!"

Mr. Corry

"Acorn had un-registered people registering and voting on the same day by the thousand. "

Then arrest and prosecute them if they broke the law....... I don't support ACORN.

If it's okay, I will remind you that you hurled the first insult. Yeah the chad thing was embarrassing for Florida. How does using inaccurate data to purge voters rolls stop that?

How does restricting early voting stop voter fraud. Can you point to any actual facts/statistics that early voting encourages voter fraud?